IC Energy late
last week broke
ground on a $390
million solar
photovoltaic
production
facility in
central
Vietnam, just
two months after
the US-based
First Solar,
Inc. started
work on a
similar plant in
Ho Chi Minh
City.

Vietnam is
backing
renewable energy
sources in its
push to become
an
industrialised
nation.
IC Energy, a
member of IC
Holding
(Vietnam), is
building a 120
megawatt plant
capable of
producing 2.4
million solar
panels per year.
The plant is on
an 11.5 hectare
site in Quang
Nam province’s
Chu Lai Economic
Zone.

The investor
received an
investment
licence for the
project last
July and plans
to go live with
first 30MW
manufacturing
line late this
year. The
project will
then become
fully
operational by
the end of 2015.

Major thin-film
technology for
the plant will
be imported from
the United
States or Europe
while the
company planned
to bring in
other equipment
from Asian
suppliers.

Hydraulic,
coal-fired and
gas-fired power
plants remain
the major
suppliers of
power for
Vietnam.
However, the
country is now
seeking to
kick-start the
use of renewable
energy
facilities like
solar and wind
power because of
the
environmental
problems caused
by the
construction and
running of hydro
and thermal
power plants, as
well as rising
fuel costs.

Renewable energy
projects are
also thought to
have very high
potential in
terms of wooing
hi-tech foreign
power players to
invest into the
local energy
market.

In late March,
First Solar,
Inc. broke
ground on its
$300 million
production base
in Ho Chi Minh
City, which will
produce more
than 250MW of
thin-film solar
modules
annually. The
project slated
for completion
by second half
of next year
will help the US
firm meet its
global target of
expanding
production
capacity to 2.9
gigawatts by
late 2012 from
some 1.4 GWs
this year.

The Vietnamese
facility will
also recycle
First Solar’s
panels.

Vietnam saw
construction of
its first solar
panel production
plant in early
2008, a project
jointly
developed by the
Vietnamese Red
Sun Energy JSC
and two other
domestic
partners.

The plant’s
first phase went
live in April
2009 and had a
capacity of five
megawatt peak (MWp)
per annum which
can produce
solar panels of
between 50Wp and
175Wp.

The investors
plan to raise
the plant’s
annual capacity
to 25MWp from
this year. Forty
per cent of its
products will be
supplied to the
domestic market
with the rest
being exported
to European and
American
countries.

Source: VIR

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